Dark Meat vs White Meat: What’s the Difference?

Is dark meat bad for you? What’s the difference between turkey and chicken meats? Which one has more calories?

Chicken Drumsticks – Dark Meat

What is Dark Meat?

Dark meats simply have more myoglobin proteins, the magic stuff that ships oxygen to the muscle cells. Muscles used more frequently, get to be dark. Chickens and Turkeys generally have dark colored drumsticks and thighs because of walking around a lot.

What is White Meat?

This is poultry tissue that is used for quick bursts of activity (such as chickens have short bursts of flight).

I believe people should eat what they think tastes better. Personally, I love chicken legs with the skin on. Not only do they contain more nutrients, but the extra fat makes me feel full quicker. I do not believe all the propaganda about saturated fats. If you want evidence contradicting the harmful effects of saturated fat, visit westonprice.org.

What’s with the anti-expert posts on this site? They’re rampant. No expert would ever say “fat is bad…cholesterol is bad, period.” They are vital to life, but too much of either eventually lead to serious vascular problems. How did Atkins die again? Hell, too many carrots are bad. Balance is what’s been lost. LDLs (bad cholesterol) and HDLs (good cholesterol) are totally different and yes, they actually do exist whether Robert thinks so or not. Nobody ever said it’s the cholesterol molecule that’s different, it’s the package it’s in and where it’s headed. Before we totally count out the people who actually study the body for a living, maybe we should learn a little about it ourselves.

Wow! Is all I can say.
We don’t oxygenate our blood by eating meat and I’m pretty sure eating a juicy steak doesn’t trigger red blood cell production. If that were true, I would have glue running through my veins right now.

Not everyone needs more iron. Some of us have too much. However, I’m not letting that stop me from eating chicken thighs or beef. My body simply feels better when I eat dark meat or beef. I don’t do well with white meat chicken or pork. Never have. Love lamb, but it doesn’t love me. I think we’re in trouble as a nation because we listen to what the “experts” say and not our own bodies. I could easily live on good, grass-fed steak and salad (without the iceberg lettuce, please!)

I find all the comments interesting and educational. They confirm what my specialist told me; that my post surgery problems with healing would get better if I would get my protein through eating red meat once a day. And I do agree with a balance in amount and types of meat that we consume.

Hahahaha, It makes me laugh how the media tries to make you believe saturated fat is bad for you.
Carbs, and other, things are usually the culperate of bad health. People should look into information provided by Paul Chek, and Sean Croxton at Underground Wellness.com
We evolved on saturated fat. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for meat. And why would the creater of the earth (who ever, what ever, you think that is) put bad things in our food for us to become ill from!?
It’s like cholesterol, our liver makes around 75% of our cholesterol – why would our body do this if it was bad for us, it WOULDN’T! There is no such thing as good and bad cholesterol, cholesterol is cholesterol. It’s oxidized cholesterol that causes problems. Cholesterol is our natural anti inflammatory amongst other important things. We need it for hormones and it is what our brains are made of etc.
But back on the subject of fat, our hormones need this too. People are made to believe if you eat fat you get fat. It isn’t true. You should look at how most people eat far too many carbs.
Comercially farmed animals are fed that much rubbish (including sawdust, plastic etc) and given drugs, animals put fat on to protect it’s organs from the toxins put into its body. If you ate organic, grass fed and free range meats there would be no problem with dark/red meats. The problem is with animals that are farmed wrong for quick profits! People, you can research and find much nonsense that you could end up believing if you know nothing of the subject. Learn the truth through good places like youtube.com and type in Paul Chek or Sean Croxton Undergound wellness.

This is good info. I tell you lean ground beef is great for the body. Oxygenating your blood is wonderful for producing new blood cells and helps your body in motion. White meat is good, but you need less for sure. Ultimately, you only need 3-4 servings of any meat per week. Processed meats are okay, but real shaved deli meats are better. Those natural meats are even better!!!

Thank you so much for this post. I agree the the dangers of dark meat have been blown way out of proportion. My Chinese family never understood the American obsession with white meat! Everything in moderation, eat a little of both and get the best of both worlds. Just don’t gorge yourself.

I appreciate that this article sheds light on the fact that the benefits of eating only white meat aren’t clear cut black and white!

I allow myself to eat pretty much anything. I just eat smaller amounts of the high calorie foods. And if I accidentally overeat I don’t beat myself up over it, I just spend a little more time at the gym and maybe eat a little less the next day 🙂

Brit said:Uh, so you’re recommending we eat sub-prime beef because of its lower fat content? Anyone who knows anything about food will realise that fat marbling is an indicator of flavour and quality in beef, which is why the “Prime” grade has more. Maybe it’s because I’m European but I’ll always go for a small well-marbled, well-hung steak over a big slab[…]

Well, don’t forget that most people in America are eating corn-fattened beef. Yeah, that’s right – we feed our cows an unnatural diet of corn and soy, rather than allowing them the grass and hay to which they have adapted and feel best eating upon.

So maybe it’s good for most Americans to avoid beef fat, and the associated omega-6 superfluousness. However, savvy folk like myself find grass-fed beef, even in the land of the stupid, and chew the fat like a good ‘ole boy.

Uh, so you’re recommending we eat sub-prime beef because of its lower fat content? Anyone who knows anything about food will realise that fat marbling is an indicator of flavour and quality in beef, which is why the “Prime” grade has more. Maybe it’s because I’m European but I’ll always go for a small well-marbled, well-hung steak over a big slab of poorer quality meat. Most Americans simply over-consume and a better way to “get healthy, get fit and live happy” would be to learn to appreciate quality more than quantity.

High saturated fat diets work wonderfully to me. More performance in the gym, lower blood pressure, better sense of well-being, etc. Wouldn’t trade it for anything. Eat the white meat if you like retinol deficiency.

I’m a dark meat kinda girl; I generally find turkey and chicken breast to be on the dry side (though I roasted my Thanksgiving turkey breast-side DOWN yesterday, and it was nice and moist) and just eat what I like rather than what I “should” be eating.

Just about any diet will advise white meat over dark meat. Always the skinless chicken breast over the leg. Always turkey over the steak. Can you blame people for avoiding dark meat? It’s been drilled and drilled that it is more fatty, more caloric, and it will clog the arteries faster than Elmer’s Glue.

I’m so sick and tired of trying to figure out what is “good” and what is “bad”. If you listen to the latest “news”, you’ll end up not eating anything. Either it will kill you because the nutritionals are bad or because it is contaminated with e coli. Sigh…

Dr. Enig also states that saturated fats are needed for the production of hormones, the stabilization of cellular membranes, the padding around organs, and for energy. Biochemical signalling processes involving G-protein, and other, receptors make extensive use of the lauric, myristic and palmitic fatty acids, since the receptors must be “coupled with lipids in order to provide localization of function”, etc.

And, contrary to uneducated opinion:

Various studies have found that women who had regularly consumed the greatest amounts of saturated fats had the least amount of additional atherosclerotic plaque buildup in their arteries. Also, women who ate more saturated fat had a healthier balance of HDL and LDL cholesterol, and more desirable blood serum concentrations of triglycerides and free fatty acids.

Basically, avoid saturated fats if you don’t like to have healthy hormonal levels, or strong cell membranes. But listen to the “government” if you want to do what’s best for Big Ag’s bottom line (suck grains).

I eat either skinless breasts or thighs, depending on what’s on sale. They aren’t that different in calorie content, but I do think the thighs taste a little better. It’s the skin that’ll do you in on poultry. Just take the skin off and most poultry meat is pretty identical. As for beef, I rarely eat it, but when I do, I like mine VERY lean and I don’t eat a lot of it.

And THANK YOU for backing me up on my ground turkey debate! My husband INSISTS that ground turkey is “healthier” than ground beef because it’s turkey. But it’s 15% fat, whereas the ground sirloin I buy is something like 7% fat or less.

I am sorry, but turkey can be as bad as a fatty steak or worse. According to the Department of Agriculture, a (Beef, ground, 90% lean meat / 10% fat, raw) compared to (Poultry food products, ground turkey, raw) are almost identical in calories, beef being a bit higher, but turkey has more cholesterol & sodium.

As a matter of fact, there is even leaner (95%/5%) ground beef, which is definitely healthier.

Beef also beats turkey when it comes to essential amino acids and vitamins.

nutritiondata.com is a simple place to compare the two.

top weight loss site said:It is hard to believe how much dark meat fat there is compared to light meat. When always eating turkey white meat is the healthiest choice by far. Eating leaner and less fat content meats and proteins will aid in your decreasing of calories more than most people think. Choosing light meat is always the smart way to go.[…]

I don’t eat meat now, but when I was a kid, I LOOOOVED dark meat. As I got older, however, the strong taste started to get to me, and I’d gag when biting into something like a chicken thigh. I had to switched to white meat for reasons of taste even though I’d always loved dark meat.

It is hard to believe how much dark meat fat there is compared to light meat. When always eating turkey white meat is the healthiest choice by far. Eating leaner and less fat content meats and proteins will aid in your decreasing of calories more than most people think. Choosing light meat is always the smart way to go.

I’ve never liked dark meat. Even as a kid, I wanted the breast. I still only really eat breast and wing. The only time I can eat dark meat is if the sauce overpowers the taste of the meat, like Bourbon sauce or a strong Teriyaki. Interestingly, my mom and dad and elder sis and brother are dark meat eaters. But my middle sis and I have a sensitivity to the flavor of dark meat. We gag. Actually gag to a plain bit of dark poultry. I have no idea why that is, cause the example we got from home was that dark was BETTER…moister. Maybe it is all the extra nutrients somehow giving it a flavor that we’re sensitive to? I also sometimes gag at steak, and definitely often gag at turkey, especially reheated turkey and chicken.

My hubby, who is a supertaster, can’t abide dark meat either. So, we just buy chicken breats here. Not for the diet purposes. Just for taste preferences.

I personally think that the “dangers” of saturated fat are blown out of proportion. The additives and preservatives added to already overly-processed food (not to mention HFCS, copious amounts of soybean oil, and trans fats) are much higher on my list of concerns. Would I live solely on cheese and drumsticks? Of course not. But dark meat chicken has more nutrients, is juicier AND tastes better (to me), so when I’m eating straight chicken, I’ll choose the dark meat. White meat works better for chicken salads (of which I eat a lot). It’s all about balance.

Good post. I am having the hardest time convincing this girl that my 4% extra lean ground beef patty is not worse than her ground turkey patty (not ground turkey breast, mind you– the cheaper 15% fat stuff) because she has white meat good red bad so fully engrained. Yech.